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L. T. WELLS.

PRINTING PRESS.

No. 25,357. Patented Sept. 6, 1859.

UNITED STATES PATEN OFFICE.

LEMUEL T. WELLS, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

PRINTING-PRESS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 25,357, dated September 6, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEMUnL T. IVELLs, of Cincinnati, in the county ofHamilton and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and usefulDevice for Arresting the Momentum of the Bed in Printing-Presses and Ihereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, makingpart of this specification.

This invention relates to the class of presses in which the bed as itapproaches the termination of its stroke is checked or arrested chieflyby the agency of a body of air confined behind a piston, and it consistsin a new and compact construction and arrangement of parts whereby theobject is more effectually and permanently secured.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective viewrepresenting the bed and ways of a press provided with my improvements.Figs. 2 is an axial section of the pneumatic cylinder.

The ways A and bed B may be of any suitable construction. The ways A areprovided with customary channels a for the runners b of the bed. Theways have also bosses C or other suitable abutments to receive theimpact of the piston rod hereinafter described. These bosses C may berecessed and have secured within them blocks of gum (caoutchouc) orother resilient substance. Attached longitudinally to the bottom of thebed is a cylinder D bored accurately to receive a metallic or otherpiston E whose rod F extends through each head G of the cylinder.

Operation: The bed being set in motion and being near the end of astroke the piston rod end on the advancing side comes in contact withits respective abutment which results in a twofold action upon theconfined bodies of air; acting to compress the air behind the piston andto relieve from pressure the air in front of the piston, so that theresistance of the compressed air is aided by the partial .vacuum createdin front, and hence a cylinder of smaller area suiiices than where onlycompression is relied upon. In this arrangement a single cylinder andsingle piston serve for both strokes, and. the working surfaces of thepiston and cylinder being completely closed in are removed from theimpediments and dangers of fracture to the machine, arising from thelodgment on the piston or within the cylinder of dirt or otherobstructions. Should the relative positions of the piston rods andabutments become slightly disturbed either by the wearing of the ways orfrom accidental violence no harm occurs, because the necessarily nicelyfitting surfaces of the piston and cylinder are never removed fromcontact with each other and are always in place, and therefore it is notessential that the ends of the rods should always strike the center ofthe abutments with the absolute accuracy upon which in the case of opencylinders depends the easy and unobstructed act-ion and indeed the verysafety of the press itself.

It is obvious that the piston E F should work air tight in the cylinder,but a slight leakage occurring either around piston or rod does notmaterially detract from the effectiveness of the machine, because thereis a constant tendency to equilibrium, between the two ends by theaction of the apparatus itself.

The following is what I claim as new and of my invention herein anddesire to secure by Letters Patent:

In the described combination with stationary abutments C on the ways Iclaim the attachment to the bed, of a closed cylinder 1), its piston EF, having a stroke relativel less than that of the bed and acting tosimultaneously condense and rarefy the air at alternately opposite endsof the cylinder as set forth.

In testimony of which invention, I hereunto set my hand.

L. T. WELLS.

lVitnesses GEO. H. KNIGHT, CHAs. WELLS.

